The rest of that night and the following days passed by quickly. A blur of activity that sped them through the final days of their trip to New York. The guys had plugged away busily at promoting their new album and Emily, for the first time in years, had felt free to do whatever she pleased. And what she pleased amounted mostly to relaxing in the hotel pool and shopping with Leighanne.

Little more was said about the conversation at the Empire State Building, and though Nick couldn't even walk past her now without reaching out a hand to squeeze her shoulder, or offering her an empathetic look, they had nearly returned to the goofy brother-sister relationship that Emily had always treasured.

Tonight was their last night in the city and Emily found herself, like many nights before, laying in her hotel room, staring up at the ceiling while she listened to her music.

Nick was fast asleep in the bed next to hers, snoring like he always did. She couldn't help but smile. She was peacefully tired... or was she tiredly peaceful? She wasn't exactly sure how to describe the feeling except... she liked it.

It was something she hadn't experienced in a long long time.

Telling Nick her secret had felt like removing a huge weight she'd been carrying around on her shoulders... a weight that must have been compressing her lungs and making it difficult to breathe, because she hadn't really realized how hard she'd been struggling to breathe until now.

She rolled onto her stomach and rested her head on the pillow. Slipping her hand into her pillowcase she removed the blanket, her baby blanket - or what was left of it after all these years - from the spot where she'd always kept it safely hidden. She held it out in front of her and sighed. She couldn't help but think that it was almost time to say good bye to this too, and to say good bye to her mother.

Emily had realized a lot of things in that week and one of those things was that she'd never really taken the time to let her mother go. She knew that as her daughter she never had to really let her go completely... and she didn't want to do that. She knew that for the rest of her life there would always be a part of her that loved her mother. A part of her that was her mother's little girl, and that was as it should be.

But she also knew that she needed to begin to accept the fact that she was really and truly gone. That she would never be coming back. Gone in a sense that a thirteen year old can't really comprehend, but that a seventeen year old, almost woman, understands painfully well.

She tucked the blanket back into her pillowcase and laid down. She wasn't quite ready to let her go just yet. And she knew that was okay too.

She could feel her eyes growing heavy and so she set her ipod to play some soft music to lull her into peaceful dreams.

It didn't take long.

Emily was sitting in the back seat of her mom's Ford Taurus. Her mother was there beside her, holding her tightly as the two of them cried together and her mother told her over and over, again and again that she was 'so sorry.'

Chris was still driving... he hollered back at the two of them to "Shut up or else!"

Emily glanced over at her mother's face. She'd taken off her sunglasses and she was staring tiredly at him from her spot beside her daughter. Her eyes were red and blood shot and her face was tear streaked.

Emily could see for the first time in that moment the damage from the beating he'd given her the night before. Both of her eyes were bruised and blackened. There was a handprint on her neck that she hadn't noticed before. Emily leaned closer to her mother and gently touched it. She jerked away at first, but then her eyes came to focus on her daughter and she pulled her into her arms in a gentle embrace.

There must have been a wreck up ahead as the traffic slowed to a near stop. This angered Chris even more. He spewed forth a long stream of curse words into the silence that had overtaken the car and Emily could hear her mother gasp from beside her. The car slowly inched forward with the flow of traffic for the longest time until they were fortunately able to pass the wreck.

Chris sped up quickly then... too quickly. He was driving irratically now, the scenery flew by at an alarming rate of speed as her mother pled for him to slow down.

They reached their exit a few minutes later and Chris swerved the car quickly off, taking them from the highway towards the mountains. They were still traveling at a tremendous speed, only now, on hills and around curves, and Emily's stomach performed flip flops as he veered sharply up the steep roads. Her mother begged repeatedly for him to stop... until finally he'd clearly had enough.

He reached around behind him into the back seat and swung at her. The sickening thud of his fist meeting her head nearly made Emily vomit into the floorboard. He reared back to hit her again, but the car suddenly took a dangerous jolt off the road before he turned his attention back to driving and barely managed to gain control.

"You're going to kill us!" Angela screamed louder with each passing moment. Emily couldn't remember a time she'd ever seen her mother so angry.

Chris took another curve at a dangerous speed, reaching behind him once more and grabbing her mother's shirt in his fist. Emily screeched as the car lurched violently off the side of the road. Angela struggled to free herself and moments later Emily could feel her arms around her. She edged the two of them towards the passenger door, as far away from his reach as she could possibly get and hauled Emily into her lap. She glanced up quickly and popped the lock on the door while he was busy trying to once again gain control of the car.

Emily watched her mother, a million questions in her eyes... what was she doing? And why?

"I'm going to open the door..." she whispered, running her hands through Emily's hair and trying to put on her bravest face, "when I tell you to... you have to jump."

Emily looked at her mother with an expression she was sure portrayed an equal amount of confusion and terror. They were in the backseat of a car being driven by a complete nutcase and her mother seriously wanted her to jump out the back door.

Was she crazy?!

"No mom!" She whispered to her urgently... "No... no... I want to stay with you."

Emily hugged her mother tightly... as tightly as she'd every hugged her before. It was the kind of hug that said more than words could ever say. Angela hugged her back. She held Emily against her chest as she told her how much she loved her and how sorry she was for everything she'd been through... for everything he'd done to her. For everything she'd been responsible for putting her through.

"Because," her mom whispered, "this was all my fault."

Emily looked up at her mother, not quite sure what she was saying... or why... but she couldn't help but think the worst as she tried her best to blink back the tears. The car was bouncing along off the road at an alarming rate now. They were dangerously close to trees and other objects and Emily knew if they didn't do something soon, they were going to crash. Chris slowed down momentarily, trying to gain control of the situation, and that's when her mother took her chance.

Emily watched as she grabbed the door handle and pulled it hard, wrestling with it for a few moments before it clicked open. Chris had seen her too. He hollered loudly at her to stop and reached back, grabbing her hair in his hand as the car slowed even more and yanking her forward. Emily heard her say "I love you baby," one last time and then...

She was sailing through the air... she was falling... she...